When the time comes to retire, Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans is confident in the quality of leaders the Sea Eagles will have moving forward.
Cherry-Evans, 34, has now played 304 games for the Sea Eagles to sit just five behind record holder Cliff Lyons for most first grade games for Manly.
Speaking ahead of Jake Trbojevic’s 200th game for Manly this Friday night at 4 Pines Park, Cherry-Evans praised the much respected forward and vice-captain for growth as a leader.
“This club is in good hands when I move on. I have got no doubt Jake will be a fantastic captain for Manly soon,’’ Cherry-Evans said.
“As a skipper, it makes my job so much easier having him come along in leaps and bounds as a leader.
“He (Jake) was definitely a ‘follow me’ on the field sort of leader.
“I reckon he has added another level to his leadership and that’s the communication with the side. Holding people accountable in certain video sessions and stuff, and even on the field.
“It’s not to take the spotlight off Jake but Tom (Trbojevic), while he hasn’t been on the field a heap, he is well and truly a leader.
“There are a few other boys that are emerging in this squad as well, which is awesome to see.
“When the time comes for me to move on, I will feel really confident about where the leadership structure is headed with the playing group.”
Cherry-Evans was also blunt in his assessment of the Sea Eagles season in 2023 that sees Manly in 12th place heading into the final round.
“I have got to say, overall, disappointing, to be completely honest,’’ he added.
“We are not playing finals again. We are going to have to watch four weeks of finals with no Manly team in there. That’s disappointing.
“There is a lot of silver linings we are going to take from this season, and there is a lot that went wrong at certain times for us.
“Ultimately, we’ve fallen short again of where we need to get to as a club.
"We have got to keep working hard from the top down. That’s just as simple as it is.”
